Thursday, April 30, 2015

Among the books on sale at the shop, which had a concession agreement with the neighboring Human Rights Council, was “How I stopped Being a Jew” by Shlomo Sand, in which the author describes the “genocidal Yahwestic tradition” within the Jewish religion, and “The Punishment of Gaza,” by Israeli left-wing journalist Gideon Levy, among books by revisionist Israeli historians such as Ilan Pappe and American linguist and outspoken critic of Israel Noam Chomsky.

Now, if you had told me that this shop stocked the pro-Israel works of, say, Alan Dershowitz, that would be shocking.

Attempts by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure a more stringent nuclear deal with Iran are “not gonna happen,” Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview published Tuesday.

“The whole mythology I’ve heard, from [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to Republican members of the House and Senate — ‘Oh, just squeeze them to death, raise the sanctions’ — not gonna happen,” Kerry told the Washington Post.

He said the deal in its current form would scale back the amount of time it would take Iran to produce enough fissile material to make a nuclear bomb from three months to one year, andit would require daily inspections of Iran’s enrichment facilities for the next “25 years.”...

There's a support group called Ex-Muslims of North America (or EXMNA, perhaps an ill-considered acronym given that it sounds a lot like "eczema") for those who have fled the faith. Considering what its members have to go through--some of their challenges are outlined here--it is obviously much needed:

And many people aren’t “out” to their families, or not completely, he said. While Cheema’s siblings and friends know he’s agnostic and are fine with that, his mother, who is religious, does not. But not to worry, he said; she doesn’t read Metro or any news, and prefers Netflix.

At a time when the news is often dominated by Canada’s war with the Islamic State and politicians’ charged comments on Islam and claims of Islamophobia, the group, said Ishmael, “toes a very fine line.”

EXMNA has been accused of Islamophobia by its critics, but takes issue with the way that’s described, Ishmael said.

“We criticize the ideology, criticize the idea, but we do not stand for any kind of anti-Muslim bigotry of any kind,” he said.

That must be very difficult when you consider that it's Muslims, who, in the name of the ideology, the idea, are doing all the bad stuff (the suicide bombings, the decapitations, the Zionhass, executing apostates and homosexuals, etc.).Or are they (and we) not allowed to be "bigoted" re ISIS and other devotees of the supremacists' global initiative?

AFP: PARIS: Cartoonist Luz, who drew Charlie Hebdo’s front cover picture of Mohammad following the massacre of the satirical weekly’s editorial team by jihadis in January, has told a French magazine he will no longer draw the prophet. “I will no longer draw the figure of Mohammad. It no longer interests me…I’m not going to spend my life drawing [cartoons of Mohammed].”

Luz’s cover image in January portrayed Mohammad with a sign saying “Je Suis Charlie” under the words “All is forgiven.”

The issue came out a week after the attack by jihadis on the magazine’s office left 12 dead. It had a print run of eight million – a record for the French press.

“The terrorists did not win…They will have won if the whole of France continues to be scared,” [Luz] added, accusing the far-right National Front of trying to stir up fear in the wake of the attacks.”

The charity run by the Clintons has raised $2 billion since it was founded in 2001 -- $144.3 million in 2013 alone -- but only a small fraction of the take went to its “life-saving work,” according to analysts who monitor non-profits.

The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation claims 88 percent of the money it raises goes to actual charity work, but experts who have looked at the books put the number at about 10 percent. The rest, they say, goes mostly to salaries, benefits, travel and fund-raising.

Security is being added for Parvez Sharma, 41, the gay Muslim director of A Sinner in Mecca, following online threats ahead of his film’s world premiere at Hot Docs Wednesday.

“It’s (being done) out of an abundance of caution,” said Hot Docs executive director Brett Hendrie. “It’s obviously a film that is provocative and high interest, and so we have somebody who will be with Parvez.”

“I am a little worried. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” said the filmmaker as he left his New York home for Toronto, adding Hot Docs was arranging “a security detail of some sort” in response to his concerns about online hate mail and death threats.

“I expected backlash, but I did not expect it so early,” said Sharma, who said he was denounced and had a fatwa imposed on him by “a minor religious figure in South Africa” following the release of his 2007 film A Jihad for Love, which looked at the lives of gay, lesbian and transgender Muslims.

Hendrie said it is “quite rare” to add security at the festival, but it has happened in the past.

The threats, which don’t mention Toronto or Hot Docs, have come in via the film’s website and on message boards, which “have completely lit up where people are denouncing the film and me,” said Sharma. Iranian state media have denounced A Sinner in Mecca as part of a “Western conspiracy” to legitimize the “despicable sin of homosexuality.”...

Maybe Hot Docs should have gone with an inoffensive Mormon exposé instead. ;)

Amount of money pledged for relief/rebuilding: unclear as yet, however, according to this, "While international aid generally surges in the immediate aftermath of natural disasters, the totals at year-end tend to remain below the $1 billion mark for any given country, based on data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)."

There's a "major peace forum" taking place over in Abu Dhabi, and participants are falling all over each other to trumpet the inherent peacefulness of their religion. Shaikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, President of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, for instance,

stressed that Islam at its core is a religion of peace and moderation.

“I am afraid that if I talk about peace like last year, people will be saying what peace are you talking about, but mercy and peace are inside Islam, and not outside of it...

“A lot of people think that Islam is the source of problems happening in the Muslim world, the biggest problem we have is identifying what gave birth to these conditions. A central point some people raise is that religion is the problem, however it’s not religion but the craft of religiosity and how it is applied. When it is not understood this can become corrupting, and so it can go from mercy to war.”

One might venture that what gave birth to them is the supremacism and jihad embedded in Islam's core texts and teachings, but I'm pretty sure the Shaikh would see that analysis as "flawed."Another participant, Shaikh Ahmad Al Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Al Azhar University, thinks he has a handle on how to control the extremists. After all, says the imam,

“It is certain that the Quran insists against murder, the Quran equalises the injustice on one soul to the whole of humanity. Islam prohibits the intimidation of others, even in a joking manner. A Muslim relationship with others is one of friendship and companionship.”

Good to know, Grand Imam. But then how do you account for the following?

Re no murder allowed: Quran (2:191-193) - "And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out. And Al-Fitnah [disbelief or unrest] is worse than killing...

but if they desist, then lo! Allah is forgiving and merciful. And fight them until there is no more Fitnah [disbelief and worshipping of others along with Allah] and worship is for Allah alone. But if they cease, let there be no transgression except against Az-Zalimun (the polytheists, and wrong-doers, etc.)"

The real problem here is that these holy men are hamstrung by their certainty that the Koran and Islam's founder are sheer perfection. It is therefore impossible for them to repudiate any part of the Koran and the similarly sacrosanct teachings and traditions that arose from it. As a result, they resort to Bin Bayyah's sort of bafflegab and spin, claiming that "religiosity" and not religion is to blame. If anyone is aware of the duplicity, it's the extremists. Which is why "peace conferences" such as this one will never be able to persuade the jihad-minded that they have somehow misread what, in Islamic holy texts, is as plain as day.

Speaking at the George Polk journalism awards on April 9 as he received a lifetime achievement award, Trudeau charged that the cartoonists had “wandered into the realm of hate speech.” He called for self-censorship in the face of violent intimidation, saying that “free speech … becomes its own kind of fanaticism.”

Trudeau’s words, understandably, incited controversy, and so on Meet the Press last week he attempted to clarify his earlier remarks and dispel the impression that he was blaming the victims for the massacre. However, he only ended up digging the hole deeper and affirming his submission to violent intimidation and implicit acceptance of Sharia blasphemy laws.

In an interview with a fawning and obsequious Chuck Todd, Trudeau assured the world that the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists were “not at all to blame,” but then immediately relapsed into blaming them for their own murders, saying: “I didn’t agree with the decisions they made that brought a world of pain to France.”

Yet it was the jihad mass murderers, not Charlie Hebdo, that brought a world of pain to France. If they had not been willing to commit mass murder in the service of Sharia blasphemy laws, France would not have experienced any pain at all. On Meet the Press, Trudeau was saying that the proper response to a thug who threatens to kill you unless you shut up was to submit and obey. That would in effect install a thugocracy, allowing those who will kill the most people the most ruthlessly the right to rule.

And, as we know, the fact that jihadis want to kill us has a lot to do with Trudeau's desire to placate them, a tactic he would never employ with, say, Christians:

If I believe something is sacred and holy, does that oblige you also to respect it? Trudeau would apparently say yes. I doubt, however, that he would say the same thing when it came to Piss Christ or the dung-encrusted painting of the Virgin Mary that was exhibited in New York a few years ago. But Christians won’t kill him for offending them.

Exactly. And that, my friends, is why there's a Tony award-winning musical called The Book of Mormon and there will never be one called The Book of Koran.Update: Further to my statement above, Sam Harris, who has been accused of "Islamophobia" because he, like Robert Spencer, has dared to point out some problematic aspects of the faith, wrote this in June of last year:

Let’s take a trip to the real world. Consider: Anyone who wants to draw a cartoon, write a novel, or stage a Broadway play that denigrates Mormonism is free to do it. In the United States, this freedom is ostensibly guaranteed by the First Amendment—but that is not, in fact, what guarantees it. The freedom to poke fun at Mormonism is guaranteed by the fact that Mormons do not dispatch assassins to silence their critics or summon murderous hordes in response to satire. As I have pointed out before, when The Book of Mormon became the most celebrated musical of the year, the LDS Church protested by placing ads for the faith in Playbill. A wasted effort, perhaps: but this was a genuinely charming sign of good humor, given the alternatives. What are the alternatives? Can any reader of this e page imagine the staging of a similar play about Islam in the United States, or anywhere else? No you cannot—unless you also imagine the creators of this play being hunted for the rest of their lives by religious maniacs. Yes, there are crazy people in every faith—and I often hear from them.But what is true of Mormonism is true of every other faith, with a single exception. At this moment in history, there is only one religion that systematically stifles free expression with credible threats of violence. The truth is, we have already lost our First Amendment rights with respect to Islam—and because they brand any observation of this fact a symptom of Islamophobia, Muslim apologists like [Glenn]Greenwald are largely to blame.

Some, like the historian Karen Armstrong, preferred to excuse anti-Semitic extremism as an expected reaction to disagreeable Israeli policies.

You mean to say, Ms. A., that without those "disagreeable" policies, the extremism would come to an end? You'll forgive me if I find that rather hard to believe, given that, for these Muslims, Israel's most disagreeable policy of all is its insistence on existence.

The first of them is anti-Zionism. That “Jews deserve to be hated because they are faithful…to an illegitimate state.” The second is Holocaust denial. “Jews deserve our distrust…our hate…because they traffic what should be the most sacred part of themselves.” And the third justification antisemites are using, Lévy argued, is that Jews use the Holocaust to “shut up” the suffering of others and other genocides, “particularly the Palestinians.”

The widespread adoption of these three smears “could be the spark of the atomic bomb of antisemitism,” Lévy warned.

When I first read these line, I thought to myself, "Boy, we really need to re-think all that Holocaust education stuff--pronto." But then, continuing on, I read this:

“I know a lot of French Jews who live under protection, who cannot move from their home to a restaurant without being escorted by two or three or four brave policemen because they are under threat of this new criminal ideology of our time, which is world Jihad.”

“The Jews are not the only target of course,” he added, but “for sure, Jews today are on the top of the top of the list of the potential victims of this world Jihad.”

Which says to me that what's really behind this current round of the longest hatred isn't the Holocaust per se, and/or how we Jews have "trafficked" in "the most sacred part" of ourselves; that sounds like a Jew blaming Jew-hatred on Jewish actions, which, pace B-H, it never really is. No, what's behind the Zionhass (my coinage for the Jew-hatred of our time) is the synergy between jihadis and other Muslims who hate Israel because its viability and success are a rebuke to Islamic dogma, and leftists, who hate Israel (and Jews who support it) because it represents everything they deplore--nationalism, "imperialism," "colonialism," etc.

Does the Holocaust factor into any of this? Maybe tangentially, but I don't think it's part of the main event--hating Israel because it's Jewish; hating Jews in the Diaspora because they're Jews, but also because of Israel and the "evil" it represents. It is thus clear that the current round of Jew-hatred is every bit as zany and unhinged as earlier versions. I do agree with one thing B-H said, however--the Jews, canaries in the coal mine yet again, top the list of folks the jihadis want to kill. That said, these days the holy warriors are slaughtering far more Christians and Muslims--a fact that, for a reason or reasons that certainly deserve further investigation, few high-profile Jews seem willing to point out--and condemn.

The UN facilitates the ongoing jihad against Israel (hardly a surprise, since members of the OIC comprise the UN's largest voting bloc). The two UN bodies perhaps most responsible for fanning the flames of Zionhass are the risibly-named United Nations Human Rights Council and UNRWA, the outfit that works hand-in-globe with Hamas, and that has allowed its facilities in Gaza to be places where jihadis stash their weapons. As such, the UN is hardly a neutral third party, and is thus incapable of rendering any fairness where Israel is concerned. Hence, this, an article, replete with photos of injured Gaza moppets--the sort that inspire Muslim Zion-loathers to terrorize and kill Jews in Israel and the West--about the "neutral" UN report which asserts that Israel should not have shelled UN Gaza "schools" (really, weapons depots) under any circumstances because UN facilities are ipso facto sacrosanct.What a simmering heap o' crapola--but all too typical of UN "neutrality."

It is outlined here, in the intro to a Ceeb radio report which examines whether love-bombing jihadis--as the Danes are doing in Aarhus--is an effective method of deradicalizing 'em:

Denmark, benign little Denmark - part of the American-led coalition bombing ISIS targets - has the second highest number of jihadists per capita in Europe. A disturbingly large number come from the city of Aarhus, home to a radical mosque, and to an equally radical approach to returnees.

In Aarhus, when the kids phone home from Syria - as they almost inevitably do - they are told, "Come back. You will be welcomed." They are given a second chance, in the name of prevention and security. The Aarhus model began to attract international attention last year. Barack Obama invited the Mayor to the White House to talk about it.

Then came Paris, and the slaughter at the offices of the magazine, Charlie Hebdo. A month later, a young Palestinian Dane, born in a Palestinian refugee camp, shot up a "free speech" meeting, then a synagogue - killing two people. What was Denmark to do?...

Off the top of my head--how about not allowing angry, jihad-minded Muslims into your country in the first place?I see disaster looming with Denmark's "hug-a-jihadi" initiative. Mind you, since it amounts to a sort of jizya, the tax Islam demands of inferior infidels, it will likely elicit rave reviews from more than a few Danish Muslims--including, of course, the returning jihadis.

According to some new study, unnamed "scientists" are attributing "extreme weather" to "global warming" (even though there has been no discernible elevation in temperature since other, ahem, "scientists" told us all to fear the effects of Y2K):

A 1995 heat wave in Chicago killed hundreds of people, and a 2003 heat wave in Europe killed an estimated 70,000.

Scientists believe that both were made more likely by the human emissions that are warming the planet, and heat on that scale will become commonplace if emissions are allowed to continue unabated. For now, though, such heat extremes — Chicago temperatures were near or above 100 degrees for four days running that July — are still rare, which makes them difficult to study in a statistical sense.

But which makes them very easy to study in the satirical sense (because the idea that these extremes aren't actually occurring but that "human emissions" will be responsible for them if and when they occur is not only satirical, it's surreal).Also--I expect to hear that "human emissions" are behind the earthquake in Nepal, and when I do I will point out that there are forces beyond the control of humankind, ones which not even a UN-and-Obama-decreed need to redistribute the West's wealth can do anything about.

I look so old John Boehner's already invited Netanyahu to speak at my funeral

Re the quip, the Ceeb newscaster "explained" to listeners that Netanyahu had "gone behind" Obama's back when Boehner invited him to speak to Congress.Now, why do you suppose the Ceeb would zero in on that "joke" when there were so many others? Could it be for the same reason that the Ceeb always seems to zero in on Israel--i.e. because of the Mothercorpse's built in leftist negativity toward Netanyahu and Zionism?

The sorry spectacle of Barack Obama, so-called leader of the free world, bowing and scraping to Iran's megalomaniacal theocrats, can't help but bring to mind the sight of another leader in another era and his breathless announcement of "peace in our time." But, as Mark Steyn observed a couple of months ago, to conflate Barack Obama with Neville Chamberlain is a grievous insult--to the latter. After all, writes Steyn, Britain's then-Prime Minister

got the biggest issue of the day wrong. But no one ever doubted that he loved his country. That's why, after his eviction from Downing Street, Churchill kept him on in his ministry as Lord President of the Council, and indeed made Chamberlain part of the five-man war cabinet and had him chair it during his frequent absences. When he died of cancer in October 1940, Churchill wept over his coffin.

So please don't insult Neville Chamberlain by comparing him to Obama...

Point taken, Mr. Steyn. But how about comparing Obama to Jimmy Carter, another feckless, far-left Democratic president who had his innings with Iran? Well, it's true that during the crisis that saw the Shah, an American ally, deposed as the Ayatollah Khomeini and his Islamic "revolution" swept into power, the Carter administration did not exactly act in a strong or creditable manner. In that sense at least, Carter and Obama are entirely in synch. However, when 49 Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Carter did grow a semblance of a backbone. He warned Iran's new leaders that there would be hell to pay if even one hostage was harmed.The Iranians took heed of the warning, and, as recounted in the Canadian documentary Our Man in Tehran, began treating their captives much better as a result (even though they were not released until Ronald Reagan took office).I wonder: would Barack Hussein Obama, who is determined to secure a deal with Iran even as the Ayatollah Khomeini's successor is screeching "Death to America" for the umpteenth time, have been able to muster the same sort of spinal fortitude? When you consider that Obama is willing to sign his "peace in our time" pact even though several Americans, including former American Marine Amir Hekmati, are being held captive in Iran, the answer to that is glaringly--and sickeningly--obvious. That being so, it must be said: please don't insult Jimmy Carter by comparing him to Obama.(Cross-posted at The Rebel/The Megaphone)

Most American Jews have been influenced by leftist thinking more than by any other way of looking at life. Overwhelmingly, throughout the world, those who fear global warming more than Iran are on the left, whereas there are virtually no conservatives in America or elsewhere who share this overriding fear. That is something both progressives and conservatives can agree upon. That’s why Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn’t fear global warming nearly as much as does President Barack Obama. Mr. Harper is a conservative.

At the same time, the further left one goes — among Jews and non-Jews — the less the concern over Iran’s threat to Israel. Indeed, as one goes further left, the greater the hatred of Israel. American Jews on the left have been so influenced by the left that many of them undoubtedly have more disdain for Benjamin Netanyahu’s government than for Iran’s. That is certainly true for George Soros (who helped fund J Street); for Tom Steyer, the billionaire who devotes his fortune to funding green politicians; for those Jewish academics and students who support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement against Israel; for Jewish Voice for Peace; and for many other Jews on the left.

This is all just another example of how morally corrosive leftism has been to American Jewish life...

Apparently, this bunch drink from the same Kool Aid jug as 'toonist Gary Trudeau:

Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose and at least four other writers have withdrawn from next month's PEN American gala, citing objections to the literary and human rights organization's honouring the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

PEN announced Sunday that the writers were upset by Charlie Hebdo's portrayals of Muslims and "the disenfranchised generally." The Paris-based magazine, where 12 people were killed in a January attack at its offices, is to receive a Freedom of Expression Courage Award at the May 5 event in Manhattan. Much of the literary community rallied behind Charlie Hebdo after the shootings, but some have expressed unhappiness with its scathing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad and other Muslims.
"I was quite upset as soon as I heard about [the award]," Prose, a former PEN American president, told The Associated Press during a telephone interview Sunday night. Prose said she was in favor of "freedom of speech without limitations" and that she "deplored" the January shootings, but added that giving an award signified "admiration and respect" for the honoree's work.

"I couldn't imagine being in the audience when they have a standing ovation for Charlie Hebdo," Prose said...

Ayatollah Khamenei stressed, however, that such “police might” needs to be accompanied by “justice” and “mercy” toward the people, adding that the Islamic Republic is not after the policing style advertised in Hollywood or elsewhere in the Western societies.

Such type of police clout “will not only fail to bring about security, but leads to more insecurity,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

The Leader also slammed the police brutality against the African-American community in the United States, saying black people in the US are subjected to “oppression” and “humiliation” by police officials, a behavior which has been behind the outbreak of social unrest in the country.

Now, that's hilarious. Given their newfound relationship, Obama should have invited The Leader to do his standup routine at that White House correspondents dinner. He would have killed!

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Beinart's piece in Ha'aretz underscores the alternate reality/Twilight Zone in which leftists dwell. Here, for instance, is what Pete considers to be "McCarthyite":

In January, the Republican presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal argued that “it is completely reasonable for [Western] nations to discriminate” against some Muslims in their immigration policies, on the grounds that radical Islamists “want to destroy their culture.”

In February, another GOP contender, Mike Huckabee, declared, “Everything [President Obama] does is against what Christians stand for, and he’s against the Jews in Israel. The one group of people that can know they have his undying, unfailing support would be the Muslim community.” In March, after New York City announced that public schools would close for two Muslim holidays, Todd Starnes, a Fox News contributor, lamented, “The Islamic faith is being given accommodation and the Christian faith and other religious faiths are being marginalized.”

This is strange. Why are conservatives more hostile to Muslims and Islam today than they were in the terrifying aftermath of 9/11? And why have American Muslims, who in 2000 mostly voted Republican, apparently replaced gays and feminists as the right’s chief culture-war foe?

You know what's really strange? The fact that Pete doesn't appear to be at all concerned about Christians being slaughtered by Muslims or ISIS making greater inroads in Iraq and Syria or the very real possibility that all too soon Iran will have nuclear weapons.Is it "McCarthyite" to have such fears? Or is it, you know, a function of knowing what's what and not being an insane, out-to-lunch leftist?

What Ayatollah wants'Tollah getsAnd Barack O, Ayatollah wants nukes.Made up your mind to signA crappy deal.Shiites are thrilled,You'll get us killed,It's true.You always get what you aim for,But Ayatollah Khamenei gets what he came for.What Ayatollah wants'Tollah gets.Please get a clue.Could you screw this one up? Yup!They'll scrub the map of Zionists.What do expect? Shiites are pissed.Wise up! Wise up! Wise up!...

“We recognize these are very tough days for all Palestine refugees, which is why projects such as this one offer a glimmer of hope and a chance to look to the future,” commented Director of UNRWA Operations in Gaza Robert Turner on the vitality of the project for the refugees.

“As with all of Gaza, we don’t yet know the details of what that future looks like in Deir El Balah. But we do know that standards of living and socioeconomic development cannot be separated from the living conditions of Palestine refugees – the quality of a camp’s physical environment has a direct bearing on the quality of everyday life,” he added.

Commenting on the lack of progress on Gaza reconstruction, the UN agency said that almost eight months after the announcement of the ceasefire, not a single totally destroyed home has been rebuilt in Gaza.

It affirmed that it didn’t receive any additional funds and had no resources available to issue additional repair payments in this reporting week. ...

Sorry to have to break in with some sanity, but why is there a "refugee camp" in an area wholly controlled by Palestinians? Shouldn't these "refugees" be residents and/or citizens?

Just as the transgender experience is beginning to be normalized in American culture, it will be swept up with the ultimate symbol of abnormality and dysfunction: the Kardashian family. If what the transgender movement seeks is acceptance; association with the Kardashian circus is the last thing it needs. While television can help normalize the lives of marginalized people, it also can exploit their hardships and reinforce stereotypes, reducing their lives to mere entertainment.

I must wholeheartedly disagree. I think Bruce Jenner, being the highest profile person ever to make the transition, and being associated as he is with the Kardashian franchise, the ultimate pop-cult sensation, could be the best thing to ever happen to the "trans" movement.That said, Jenner identifies as a "conservative Republican," which, in southern California, makes him a real freak: SoCal-ers can tolerate the I'm-a-chick shtick no problemo, but owning up to the Republican thing--now, that could very well turn him into a pariah.Update: Bruce Jenner transgender series coming to E! this summerUpdate:Transgender toddlers

According to data collected by watchdog group NGO Monitor, between 2012 and 2014 about 177 million shekels was donated to various organizations from foreign countries, defined as “political organizations.” Some of these organizations are involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such as B’Tselem, Gisha (the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement), Bamakom – Planners for Human Rights, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, MachsomWatch, Zochrot, Ir Amim, Coalition of Women for Peace, Yesh Din, Breaking the Silence, Adalah and many others.

The European Union itself is the regions biggest donor, providing these organizations with almost 18 million shekels ($4.6 million) over the past two years. Other than the EU, other big donors include Norway, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, which each give a few million shekels every year. In addition to giving money to Israeli organizations, many countries also offer money to Palestinian organizations that are more extreme both in outlook and practice, reports NRG.

These organizations are controversial in Israel because they consistently promote a Palestinian narrative regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some of the NGOs call for boycotts and sanctions against Israel; one of these organizations sought a boycott of the Israeli Aroma coffee franchise. Others seek the establishment of a single, binational state and the end of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist country, according to the report.

The slow wheels of justice have finally turned granting bail to Omar Khadr, the wrongfully convicted Canadian citizen who was captured in Eastern Afghanistan in July 2002. Barely 15 and badly wounded, he miraculously survived two gaping wounds when bullets pierced his body completely. He was endlessly tortured and confessions extracted thus were used in a military court to convict him.

Why are these Shiites being so nice to Al Qaeda jugend Omar? Are they trying to entice him to come speak at Edmonton's Al Quds Day rally or something?

to enable this family to lead the lifestyle of a head of state after it has ceased to be head of state. They spent $70 million dollars on travel at the Clinton Foundation. By comparison, the entire Royal Family, to fly between their various realms - the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, that's a lot of air miles - the entire Royal Family in one year spent $7 million dollars. So in other words, the Clintons have ten times the airplane costs of the Royal Family, who are heads of state of dozens of bits of real estate around the world. The Clinton Foundation is a hollow shell foundation playing the usual shell game with U.S. taxation. There's no need for a Clinton Foundation except for them to rake in money from Kazakhs and Ukrainians and Iranians and Saudis and everybody else.

That's a pretty humongous carbon footprint for a racket that claims to want to address climate change. But, hey, since they get to act all noblesse oblige-y while raking it in, you can bet that the Clintons would never willingly put themselves out of business.

When he was running for the top job back in '08, candidate Obama said this:

The facts are undeniable. ... [A]s President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide. ... America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. I intend to be that president.

But the president’s actions are consistent in other ways. Put differently, it is no marvel that Obama denies the genocide of Armenian and other Christian minorities at the hands of Muslims from a century ago, when one considers that he denies the rampant Muslim persecution of Christians taking place today under – and often because of – his leadership.

Petricic, who is no fan of the Jewish State and is thus the perfect guy to be the Ceeb's Middle East correspondent (indeed, despising Israel is a crucial, albeit implicit, part of the job description), tweeted this "deep thought":

Perhaps thinking the better of such an inflammatory equation--Jews defending Israel being akin to savage ISIS jihadis--Petricic followed it up with this:

Of course not saying joining Israel army same as joining ISIS. But seems something in ISIS awakened desire to oppose it & defend Israel too

Something in ISIS? Oh, you mean its desire--one shared by all jihadis, including those kooky nukers over in Iran--to wipe Israel off the map a.s.a.p.? Yeah, that might stimulate a young Jews' desire to up and defend the Jewish homeland.That and the insane Jew-hatred in places--France, the UK, etc.--they're escaping from.But you won't see any of that in a Petricic tweet because the man harbours a deep-seated animus toward Israel, and it's obvious he has a hard time keeping it under wraps.

Neither Israel’s Prime Minister or its President will meet with the former
U.S. President when Jimmy Carter comes to the area sometime in the next few
weeks.

Jimmy Carter requested meetings with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, it was reported by Israeli media
based upon information provided by unnamed Israeli diplomatic officials, but
both politicians rebuffed the offer.

The reason for the rejections is said to be based on the conclusion of the
Foreign Ministry that Carter has become obsessively and unrestrainedly
anti-Israel in his public statements and writings.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

I don't know what newly-appointed Toronto Police Chief Mark Sauders' feelings are about the efficacy of police "outreach" to Toronto Muslims (although, full disclosure, I have met the new chief on a number of occasions that were personal, not professional; his son is a friend of my niece), but here's a photo showing his predecessor Bill Blair getting "clocked" late last year.

Imam Abdul Hai Patel, is a chaplain with the York Regional Police. Patel, along with other members of the Canadian Council of Imams in 2012, attended a conference in Saudi Arabia sponsored by the Muslim World League. The Muslim World League, as detailed below, has a long and sordid association with terrorists. Do note well that the Muslim World League operates WAMY – the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. WAMY was stripped of status as a Canadian charity last year after it was discovered to have funded terrorists.

Here's the Toronto Sun report about the inflammatory material that was yours for the taking at Badat's mosque during this year's Door Open event. And here's the info about tomorrow night's fundraiser.Anyone else find the juxtaposition of this imam and Muslim kiddies to be worrisome, as I do?

It could be that the story is too gruesome for readers and viewers (although I doubt that would be the case had the decapitator/soccer buff been, say, Israeli). And it could be that it's an instance of "the soft bigotry of low expectations" in that we have come to expect--and have largely become inured to--such jihadi blood sport. But I don't think that's what's happening here. I think that this is a matter of media indifference, not to mention disinterest, in stories that put Muslims in a terrible light, an indifference that invariably dissolves when it involves Israeli Jews defending themselves against, and sometimes killing, Muslims. Media bias being what it is, in those scenarios, the Jews are always--always--depicted as the bad guys. I may not be the first to have characterized the media's ingrained hostility toward Israel as "the hard bigotry of impossibly high expectations." But I like to think that the idea/observation was/is mine.

A Scottish National Party candidate has called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be tried for war crimes.

Stewart McDonald, who is standing in Glasgow South, has also backed a boycott of Israel, according to the Common Space website.

Speaking at a hustings last Thursday, he is reported to have said: “I think we need to get Netanyahu in front of a war crimes trial.

“The Palestinian issue was one of the things that brought me into politics. It is one of the biggest injustices still going on today and I’m a proud member of the SNP’s friends of Palestine group.

“It is British imperialism at its worst. Where someone sits in a hall and divides up a piece of land that they have never visited or been to, and look at the problems that it causes.

“If it looks like apartheid then I’m going to call it apartheid and that’s what it looks like to me. Boycott, divestment and sanctions is worthwhile pursuing and is one of the things I really hope to move forward on.”...

Look at a map, laddie. "At its worst," British imperialism commanded an impressive swath of the globe, an empire on which the sun never set. Whereas Israel "at its worst" is itty-bitty.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

That's for sure. For one thing, it seems to be much colder than it used to be. That said, you know what can be denied by this POTUS? Every single one of his screw-ups, from Fast and Furious to Benghazi to if-you-like-your-doctor to ISIS-is-j.v. to we're signing a nuke deal with Iran no matter what--and everything in between.Update: When Obama says stuff like this, I fear for his sanity.Update: Did the Earth move during Obama's term in office? Why, yes; yes it did.

Carla Power, the chick TIME chose to rebut Hirsi Ali, is so in love with the Koran that she authored a book giving it a rave review. It is thus no surprise that she's not exactly enamored of Ms. Ali, whom she accuses of "not getting" Islam. First and foremost of what she supposedly doesn't get is--try not to giggle now--this:

Islamic law is more flexible than many think

...Too often, non-Muslims and Muslims alike don’t know enough about Islam to see how flexible Islamic laws can be. Like the violent extremists she rightly opposes, Hirsi takes the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad’s example to be an unbending set of rules and Islam to be “the most rigid religion in the world.” However, its flexibility was one of the reasons it could spread so effectively from Arabia through Asia and Africa, allowing local practices to remain as long as they didn’t contravene its basic tenets.

Well, I'll grant you that the rules are pretty simple. But did it really spread so widely because of its "flexibility" or due to jihad, the holy war that's at the heart of the religion and that has always provided the incentive for Muslims to conquer and cow large populations of infidels?Does Power really think Islam would have spread so widely without jihad?Also--sharia? Flexible? Yeah, it's a veritable Gumby. But surely not in a good way.
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The "flexibility" of sharia law in action--here in Saudi Arabia,
where uppity chicks are beheaded...

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...and here in Iran, where they're stoned to death.

Update: If you want to know the truth about Islamic jurisprudence, watch this.

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About Me

Scaramouche is my nom de Web. My real name is Mindy G. Alter, and I like to think of myself as a free speecher with a sense of humour. My bailiwick: fighting on behalf of all the good things that free speech helps safeguard, and doing my utmost to highlight the malevolence and imbicilities of those who oppose freedom, whomever they may be.